Published on
Updated
Reading 1 min.
Inviting friends over to watch a game and shouting in unison at your TV could improve your mental wellbeing, according to a new study.
The mixture of euphoria and hysteria shared by football, hockey and even tennis addicts could be the cause… of good mental health. At least that’s what the authors of a book on the subject (“Fans Have More Friends”) claim.
Being a fan brings a sense of belonging to a community
According to David Sikorjak, co-author of the book interviewed by the site Healthlinesport is a source of well-being, especially social.
“[Les sports] are a pervasive connection facilitator. Sport is the reason to bring people together, the reason to send that text message, the reason to check in with your parents, etc. Sport anchors and galvanizes relationships; they facilitate social interactions.”
Thus, the authors ensure that fans of sport, music or video games feel less alone – because of their sense of belonging to a community – and therefore experience “lower rates of depression and loneliness than non-fans“.
To prove their claims, they used the UCLA Loneliness Scale, an instrument for assessing subjective feelings of loneliness and social isolation.
Results ? After passing the tests, the supporters turned out to be more surrounded than the others.
“If being a sports fan is about community, then more engaged fans will have more friends than non-fans/less engaged fans. And through multiple surveys of tens of thousands of Americans, we’ve proven it.“, confirms David Sikorjak.
Fans more satisfied with their professional career
This chronic but playful “fanaticism” would also allow fans to strengthen their family ties and other relationships in general. Thanks to this all-consuming passion, supporters would also be more satisfied with their professional careers and they would express their gratitude more.
Other past studies had already shown that encouraging a team is beneficial for mental health. In addition to creating cohesion among individuals, this passion gives additional motivation to practice a sporting activity.